It All Started With an Essay
by hallow777
Summary: Ran has to write a lengthy essay on Magicians for school. So who is the best person for her to ask for help from? Why the famous Kaitou KID of course! But wait, how does she know who he really is? Well you will just have to read and find out! not kaito/ra
1. Chapter 1

**AN: First of all I want to make it clear that even though the main characters in this story are Mouri Ran and Kuroba Kaito, they are NOT going to end up together!!!!!**

**Ran will be with Shinichi and Kaito will be with Aoko later on. I am sorry the first chapter is so short but it seemed like the perfect place to end it there so I hope you still like it. I swear I am actually going to finish this story... if you have noticed I have a bad habit of not finishing things... but even if it kills me I am going to finish this one!!**

**Much thanks to xxBakaakki for beta reading and making it much better than it was ^^;  
**

"Mouri-san? Could you stay after class for a few minutes please?" A dark haired teacher asked one of her students that was just about to walk out of the classroom.

After telling her blonde haired friend to go on to lunch with out her, the dark haired girl turned around and walked up to the teachers desk.

"Is there something wrong Sensei?"

"Oh no, nothing's wrong, Mouri-san. Well, not entirely anyway. Yesterday I gave out a writing assignment and I wanted to tell you the details of it since you were absent yesterday. Oout solving cases with your father again, ne?"

"The day that I actually solve a case will be the day pigs fly and Sonoko gets a perfect score on the mock exam, but yes I was out with my father yesterday. Sonoko was saying something about it being an essay?"

"Now now, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself I am sure that if you tried hard enough you could solve a case just like Kudou-san. I had all the students pick a slip of paper out of a box that had various things written on it and that is what they are writing their essays on. It seems that there is only one left though and it might be a bit hard to write about, but I'm possitive you can do it, Mouri-san."

The teacher held out a piece of paper with one word written on it. Ran took the piece of paper, looked at it for a few seconds, and grinned widely.

"Don't worry Sensei I know just the person to help me."

"Very good then, also I'm giving extra points for visual demonstrations to go along with the essay so dont forget! The due date is in exactly one month from today. This counts as most of your grade for this semester, so put a lot of thought into it."

"Don't worry Sensei. I'll do my best." Ran said as she walked towards the door, pocketing her slip of paper.

The piece of paper had only one word on it: MAGICIAN

The three residents of the Mouri household were sitting around the table eating dinner that night when Ran brought up the fact that she wouldn't be home in time for dinner the following night.

"What do you mean no dinner? What am I going to eat? Do you want me to starve to death? Wait a minute, where are you going anyway? You aren't sneaking out to meet with that detective brat are you?"

"Mou, Otou-san there is a cafe right below us, It's not like you are going to starve if I don't cook dinner for one night. Even though its none of your business, I am not going to see Shinichi. I have a essay I need to get started on and to do that I have to go pay a visit to some one and since it's a half day tomorrow its the perfect day to go. Oh and Conan-kun? Try not to get into to much trouble while I'm gone."

"I won't, Ran-neechan. I'm going to spend the day over at Agasa Hakase's anyway."

The next day, after school had let out early, one Ran Mouri sat eagerly on the train wearing a slightly evil grin and thinking of the surprise a certain someone was going to get when they came home from school and found her waiting for them. The other people aboard the train were trying very hard to stay clear of the the manically grinning teenager who was clearly plotting something devious. They were starting to feel sorry for the person whom she was thinking about, while praying that it wouldn't have anything to do with them.

Many miles away in a school that did _not_ let out early, one teenage boy suddenly sneezed and confetti went flying everywhere.

"Kaitoooooooooo!"

**I know my writing style isn't the best but I am trying to improve so suggestions are really helpful.** **If you think something is strange in the story or you don't understand something please let me know so i can fix or explain it ok?**

**Please Read and Review (Flames will be taken into consideration and then used to toast marshmellows)**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: For some reason I decided to write this chapter in first person, as in Kaito's point of view. Its kinda my first time (that I remember) writing in first person so I really don't know if it turned out good or not. So please tell me what you think and if you think it sounds weird i might rewrite it to where its the same style as the first chapter so its really important that you tell me what you think of it.**

**Oops, I forgot to say this in the first chapter but I don't own Detective Conan or any of the characters.**

**EDIT: I forgot to say many thanks to xxBakaakki for beta reading again  
**

All I can see is a long dark hallway in front of me, the dark walls flashing past me as I run full out down the hallway seeking a way out. Finally after what seems like hours I can see the end but it turns out to be even worse than the dark hallway because in front of me is something straight out of a nightmare. Fish were everywhere. Red fish, blue fish, green fish, and orange fish. Fish of all colors and sizes imaginable. But that wasn't the worst of it; they were talking to me.

"Kuroba?" A voice coming from behind me asked. I turned around as fast as I could to see the biggest, ugliest, brown fish walking towards me. I was surrounded by fish! There was no where to run! The big brown fish started walking towards me and my legs wouldn't move even though my brain was screaming at me to get the hell out of here. Its big fishy mouth opened and let out this horrible scream and suddenly I was falling backwards only to land on the cold tile of the classroom floor.

"Kaito? Are you ok? You suddenly screamed and fell out of your chair." Oh so that was me screaming not the fish. Oops.

"Uh, yeah Aoko. I'm fine. I was just having a horrible dream."

"Although I am glad to know that there is nothing wrong with you Kuroba-san, would you mind explaining just why you were sleeping in my class?!?!" Mr. Watanabe was looking ever so ugly today in his brown suit, resembling the brown fish in my nightmare very accurately.

I was saved from having to answer him as the final bell of the day rang. With a quick 'poof' my stuff was gathered from where it had spilled on the floor during my little episode and I was out the door before anyone could blink twice.

Half way out the doors of the school my childhood friend, Aoko, caught up with me and asked what could have been in my dream that would make me scream like that. My reply was that there were a thousand Aoko's chasing me around with a mop. She apparently didn't like the fact that I was dreaming about her and set out to chase me around with her ever-so-handy mop. Seriously, I am supposed to be the magician here but she has me beat at where she hides that thing. Because of our lovely little mop chase we arrived at her house in record time, and with a final swipe towards my head with the mop she went inside to get a head start on all the home work we had today.

Walking down the street towards my house, I wondered what to do the rest of the day since I managed to get all the homework done before I fell asleep. As I got closer to the house I started to feel uneasy like there was something horrible waiting for me there. The worst thing that could be waiting for me would be if mom decided to cook fish for dinner again but since I haven't done anything to make her mad at me that I know of she shouldn't be cooking that horrible creature people call fish. Hand on the door knob I paused to take a deep breath praying that I wouldn't smell fish as I opened the door and walked inside. No fish smell but my mother was standing in the hallway looking anxiously towards the front door.

"Is something wrong mom?" I watched her face go from worried to shocked to slightly less worried and slightly smug before she spoke.

"Oh no! Nothing's wrong, though, you do have a guest. How come you never told me that you had such a pretty friend? She isn't your girlfriend is she? She said that you two were good friends. You better not be cheating on Aoko. Aoko is a nice girl she doesn't need an idiot like you dumping her for some pretty girl you met." She kept on ranting about girlfriends and Aoko while I could only stare at her dumbfounded, desperately thinking who this guest could be. Would it be Akako? She _is_ rather pretty but why would she be here? We just saw each other at school and I can't see her going out of her way to come here just to tell me something, so I guess it's not her. I doubt it's anyone from school since they could have talked to me there. This is getting me no where it would be easier to go see who it is. "Um, mom? I'm just gonna go put my stuff upstairs and then I'll go greet the guest, ok? Mom? Are you listening?" Guess not since she's still going on about how if I were to hurt Aoko she would feed me fish for a month. Wow she sure knows how to make threats but it's not like Aoko and I are even going out. Shouldn't she know that by now? Oh well, more pressing matters need to be taken care of like this mystery guest of mine.

To say I was surprised at who was waiting for me would be an understatement- a very big understatement. When I first walked into the room I had halfway decided that it might be this one classmate of mine that has taken a liking to stalking me and I was planning various ways in which to rid myself of her, but after seeing who was actually in the room sitting on the couch calmly sipping tea with a evil grin on her face had me thinking that it might be a lot better if it was, in fact, the stalker classmate of mine. My brain had successfully figured out who was in the room but for the love of everything that's non-fishy, it could not figure out _why_ Mouri Ran was in my house claiming to know me. Kuroba Kaito has never met Mouri Ran before so how is this possible? Of course Kaitou KID has disguised as her and her father a few times before, but there is no way she knows who I am really am… is there?

**AN: I know you are probably mad I didn't tell you how she knows him aren't you? I am sorry but if I had gone into the whole explanation about it in this chapter I wouldn't have been able to finish it for a long time because after tonight I unfortunately have to really get busy packing because I am moving soon so unless I find a way to procrastinate and put off packing (Which I probably will) its going to be a few days before I can update. But I promise you the next chapter will have the answers everyone wants.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Ok so the first person chapter didn't really work out that well sorry about that I just wanted to try it but I promise I won't do it again lol.  
Gemi said that Ran was Aoko-ish in the chapter...and I guess thats sorta true. But please forgive me its necessary for her to act like that for now but don't worry she will be less Aoko-ish as time goes on or at least thats what I plan to happen...**

**Inspiration for this chapter goes to Gemininus for making me read her angsty new chapter of her story, causing me to feel the need to write something non-angsty.  
Go read The Last Night by her if you haven't its really good and suspenseful and dramatic. ^^**

**Many thanks to**** xxBakaakki**** for Beta reading again!  
**

A soft "flip, flap" sound could be heard from inside the office of one Mouri Kogoro. This unusual sound was made by a deck of cards being shuffled back and forth. This continued on for another few minutes until suddenly it was replaced by a rather loud series of "pitter patter" sounds followed by a soft curse as all the cards were suddenly strewn about the room. Again.

"RANNNNN!!"

"I know, I know. I'll clean it up right away, Otou-san." Ran sighed as she got up from the couch and started to pick up the various cards that had scattered from her attempted magic trick.

"Will you just stop trying to do what ever you're doing? This is the fifth time Ran. Give it up, it ain't gonna work and you're distracting me from watching Yoko!" Kogoro grumbled while attempting to peel off the ace of spades that had some how gotten stuck right in the middle of the TV screen.

"It will too work! I've almost got it. The cards just refuse to bend like they're supposed to and they end up flying out of my hands. I _have_ to learn this so quit complaining, or would you rather I fail this year because of all these cases you've been getting, Otou-san?" Defeated, Kogoro turned his attention back to the card that refused to come off the screen.

It had been two days since she had shown up at Kuroba Kaito's house and scared the poor guy half to death. It had taken a total of three hours, two threats to inform certain high school detectives of KID's whereabouts, and one incident involving the Finding Nemo plushie Sonoko had given her a while back to convince him that it was in his best interest to help her with her essay. For fear of accidentally exposing something about KID and his magic tricks that she didn't already know, Kaito decided it would be in his best interest if she learned as many tricks as possible so she could write her essay about that rather than about his occupation as a magician. So, he showed her a few practice exercises to do that would help her in some of the more complicated tricks and showed her how to juggle before all but shoving her out the front door. Ran spent the rest of that day fixing dinner and attempting to juggle. Lets just say that those attempts were not very successful although she did get better after practicing half the night. Poor Conan still had the urge to duck behind the nearest large object when the brightly colored balls started flying through the air.

The day after that, Ran went back to his house and suffered through an incredibly long, boring, and thorough explanation about sleight of hand accompanied by three simple tricks. Of which, she had gotten the hang of the first two very quickly but the third one involved playing cards. Ran and magic tricks involving cards just did not seem to mix. Kaito had noticed the trouble she was having with the playing cards and cheerfully taught her how to do an even _more_ complicated trick with them, thus why cards were now randomly flying about the Mouri Detective Agency.

Watching the cards once again fly out of her hands and onto the various objects near by, Conan decided that if she ever came back from these "magic lessons" with a saw and a box looking for someone small enough to fit inside, he would officially take up permanent residence at Agasa Hakase's. Screw staying at the detective agency, he preferred to stay in one piece.

* * *

It was agreed between the two of them that they should meet somewhere other than Kaito's house to continue her lessons. Even though his house was spacious and had plenty of room, it was getting hard to concentrate on the tricks she was trying to learn when his mother, Aya, kept randomly popping in and out of the room often startling Ran and causing her to mess up. Thus they had relocated to a back room of a cafe that Kaito had talked the owner into letting them use. With all the boxes lined up against the wall they had plenty of room to preform the tricks.

"Ne, Kuroba?" Ran asked while attempting a sleight of hand trick involving making a quarter turn into a penny.

"Sheesh what happened to -kun? We have only known each other for three days you know." Taking a quarter out of God knows where, he showed her how to do the trick once again, completing it flawlessly and then repeated it again, only slower, showing her step by step.

"Would you rather I call you KID then? Ah! I did it! Finally!" Grimacing slightly at the name, he pointed out that she didn't do it right. She had made a slight mistake that revealed the secret of the trick and made her do it over again.

"Anyway Kuroba, I have been wondering how do you manage to disguise yourself so well during a heist? I know that you make those weird masks of people like I've seen Yukiko-san do some times, but when you are at the heist you can't possibly say 'Oh that person looks like a good person to disguise myself as' and then make a mask right then can you?" The quarter trick was put away in order to practice juggling. She had a knack for juggling even though the first attempts were disastrous.

"Your amount of knowledge scares me. How do you know that?"

"You're avoiding the question aren't you? Well, like I said, I've watched Yukiko-san make those masks a few times and she always talked about Kuroba Toichi of her "Seven Knights" she met that taught her how to disguise. So since he is your father he must have taught you."

_And this is a nice example of what happens when you spend to much time with a detective, you start deducting things. Note to self: never again underestimate friends of detectives. Especially if they are childhood friends. _

"Yukiko... She's that lady that got mad when I called her a pretty oba-chan I think." The juggling balls continued to fly through the air in front of Ran and occasionally behind her as she formed different shapes in the air with them. It was silent except for the sounds of the balls flying up in the air for a few minutes before suddenly the balls changed direction and started bouncing off Kaito's head and back into her hands.

"Ow!" Thunk. "What are you doing?" Thunk. "Stop that already!" Thunk. Thunk thunk. Thunk thunk thu- "OK! I got it already I'll answer your question! Just stop! You're giving me a headache." _Evil woman! She sure knows how to get what she wants though. Poor Tantei-kun. I'm surprised she hasn't beaten the truth out of him yet.  
_The balls changed direction once again and went back to flying around in a circle in front of a grinning Ran.

"Everything is planned out a few days before the heist. I sneak in as a guard, or sometimes even Nakamori-keibu, and scout out the place to figure out who to disguise as or if I even _need_ to disguise. Then I make a general plan and a few hours before the heist I sneak in again to make sure nothing has changed. Happy now? Now lets try another trick shall we? Perhaps something involving cards?"

Grimacing at the prospect of dealing with the uncooperative cards again she put the juggling balls away and got out the pack of playing cards.

"One more thing, before you try to teach me another trick with these evil cards. How do you change your voice? It sounds like it would be a fun and useful skill to use."

"No. Absolutely not! I am not teaching you anything other than magic tricks. There are only four people that I know of that have been taught how to change their voices and disguise themselves and that is Tou-san, myself, Kudou Yukiko, and that other lady Sharon. I will not make that Five people." _Did she just twitch when I mentioned Sharon? Hmm strange._

"Aww! Come on why not? What could it hurt? Please?" She pleaded while doing the easy card practice exercises that she always had to do before they started on a new trick.

_What could it hurt? My sanity for one thing. But why does she want to learn it? Its not like she's going to take up thievery for a living. Even if she did have that crazy idea in her head Tantei-kun would find out right away. I suppose it would be helpful in confusing criminals at a crime scene. Actually, I don't think I want to know, but if I don't give her a chance to try it she'll bring out the blackmail again. Oh well its not like she will be able to learn it anyway._

"Alright fine I will make you a deal, a week from tomorrow I got roped into doing a magic show for the Junior High school, you will be taking my place. If you can manage to put on a good show using the tricks I have taught you without messing up _and_ keeping the audience entertained, then I'll teach you about disguises and voice changing. If you mess up though, I will not teach you anymore."

Finishing with the card exercises she put all the cards back in the deck and handed it to Kaito.

"Well then, you better start teaching me some more tricks because I doubt I can keep an audience entertained by making a quarter turn into a penny and juggling."

And so the next few days went by uneventfully with Kaito teaching Ran different magic tricks, that is, unless you count all the times the tricks went wrong and the room became covered in confetti or filled with smoke from a misplaced smoke bomb. It wasn't until the fourth day they had been meeting at the cafe that something unexpected happened.

Ran had stayed at the cafe after Kaito left to work on her tricks some more because her father was going to be out late playing mahjong and Conan was staying over at Agasa Hakase's to play some new game. It was just starting to get dark when Ran stepped out of the cafe intending to head home only to be stopped by a teenage girl that looked similar to herself.

"So its you that Kaito has been seeing everyday isn't it? Normal people don't go into cafes and stay for hours at a time. So just what is it that you two have been up to in there?"

**AN: Soooo now Aoko has entered into the story. What do you think will happen next? Well I will give you a little hint: Aoko is very mad and she has a mop. Where she got the mop I don't know.**

**Sorry for those of you that expected an explaination in this chapter. I was really going to explain everything but then I had an idea for something later on and for that to happen I can't explain things now.  
**


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